The information found in the above links will remain updated as any further changes are made.

Psynister’s Thoughts
With so many patch notes, I’m not about to comment on every single one of them. However, I will talk about some of them below that have particularly caught my eye. Some of these changes I have already discussed and you can find by reading other articles I have posted over the last week or two.

I welcome you all to share your thoughts on the patch here as well. Feel free to comment on the specifics I point out here, or any other portion of the patch notes that I do not specifically cover.

The following points will be broken down into the same category they fall under within the patch notes.

For the individual class notes, there are many classes that I do not have enough experience playing to give an honest opinion on the changes, so I may skip over some of the specific classes. Nearly every class received at least some form of update though, so if you would like to get more details on those changes then I suggest you look at the patch notes yourself for the details.

General

The local Postal Service has grown tired of walking so far each day to collect mail and have decided to install a large number of new mailboxes to Stormwind, Undercity, Darnassus and Orgrimmar.

This is the only thing I want to point out in the General section that I have not already covered. The lack of mailboxes in many of the towns drives me crazy. Including “a large number of new mailboxes” in cities is an excellent change that I welcome with open arms. Tons of mailboxes and double bank and auction house locations are the one thing that I love about Silvermoon, and the lack thereof is the one thing I hate about everywhere else.

PvP

Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).

Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar – both located near the Battlemasters in either city – and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10 gold.

Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.

Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.

Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 gold fee of course. Any experience that would’ve been accumulated if experience gains were not turned off cannot be recovered.

This change holds a lot of potential. Finally we see something from Blizzard aimed directly at twinks. While I’m not a hardcore twink, I do enjoy doing it. Giving players the ability to shut off their experience gain is excellent. You can now power level your twinks to the desired level, turn off their experience gains, and then go farm all the items and achievements you want without having to worry.

It’s also worth noting the 4th bullet there. If you turn off your experience gain, you will only participate in battlegrounds with other players who also have it turned off. So basically we have an opportunity have have twink vs twink and non-twink vs non-twink battlegrounds, so those of use who do like PvP but don’t like going up against players who live solely for that reason might actually stand a chance.

Now, there’s nothing stopping those twinks from turning their experience gain back on before a BG so they can face non-twinks instead, but they have to fork over 10g every time they want to make the change back and forth.

Races: General

Axe Specialization (Orc): The weapon bonus from this effect now applies to fist weapons in addition to axes.

Orcs are now able to apply their racial specialization to fist weapons. Shamans and Rogues are the only classes I ever see using fist weapons, and shamans far more than rogues. Not a big deal in my opinion, but it might bring a little more attention to the orcs.

Items: General

Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.

Mana Regeneration: All items that provide “X mana per five seconds” have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%

Increased bonuses to block value is a pretty big deal. It doesn’t double from the shield itself, nor from your Strength score, but all other equipment that grants you bonus Block will be increased. My Prot Paladin readers should love this one.
After posting this the thought occurred to me to actually look at some gear out there, and after having done that I’m really not entirely sure that this is going to be that big of a deal. There aren’t all that many options for increasing your Block, and the ones that do aren’t necessarily worth taking over other pieces that don’t. For now I’m going to jump over to being neutral on this one until I’ve had a chance to do some more looking. Extra block value is always good, but the change itself might not have all that much impact.

A lot of people threw fits about Mana Regeneration nerfs in the previous patch. I don’t know that this is going to solve any of those opened wounds, but at least we’re seeing a little bit of an increase in mana regen.

Classes: General

Silence, Strangulate, Silencing Shot, and Arcane Torrent: These abilities will also apply a 3 second interrupt effect against non-player controlled targets, making them more versatile against creatures immune to silencing effects.

This change might be nothing, and it might be a life saver. Being able to use them as spell interrupts even against targets that are immune to silence can be a very welcome addition to your arsenal if you happen to play a race/class that has these abilities.

Death Knights

Due to significant talent changes, all death knight talents will be reset for players.

Death Knights are the only class mentioned as receiving all of their talent points refunded. If you have a build that you like and don’t want to forget it then I suggest you copy it down somewhere before the slates are wiped clean.

I make no claims towards being knowledgeable about Death Knights. Since I don’t know how significant the impact of these changes are going to be, I will leave it to others who know more about the subject to give details concerning them.

Mages

Invisibility: Can no longer be interrupted by a hostile action or damage done during the 3 second fade time, however an invisible mage can still be stunned or silenced.

This is the main update that interests me in the mage. There’s nothing worse than knowing that you have to flee in order to survive, popping invisibility, and then immediately finding it disrupted right in the middle from some random hit.

Paladins

Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now also increases stamina by 10%. This effect is not cumulative with Blessing of Kings.

Exorcism: Now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can once again be used on players.

Hand of Reckoning: Redesigned. Now does damage only when target does not currently have the caster targeted, but damage done increased to 50% of attack power, occurring after the taunt effect is applied.

Lay on Hands: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 10/20% instead of increasing the target’s armor.

Paladins have the longest list of changes in this patch, and they really covered a lot of different points. All specs are going to feel the effects of this patch in one way or another.

Since I have recently devoted much of the blog to Protection Paladins I am going to discuss more of their points than others.

Blessing of Sanctuary not giving +10% Stamina is HUGE. This effect is in addition to the effect that it already has. Not only are you gaining more hit points, which is always good for a tank, but you are also increasing your spell power (assuming you’ve spent the talents points for it) which in turn will increase the amount of threat that you are able to generate.

I really don’t like the change to Exorcism. I do like that you will be able to use it on players again for when I do happen to need to PvP, but adding a cast time completely removes it as a viable option for being included in my tanking rotation or as a form of taunt to get stray mobs to turn their focus back to me. If there was anything I would be willing to do a little QQ over, it would be this. But, it’s not essential in any way, so overall I dislike it but really don’t care at the same time.

Lay on Hands provided a damage reduction buff rather than bonus armor makes this an even more effective tool for use in grinding and farming, as well as tanking in general.

Rogues

After much quiet contemplation, rogues now possess the ability to learn how to use one-handed axes.

Giving rogues more options for better weapons is sure to thrill the rogues out there. I’m not a huge fan of the class myself, but it seems like a good change to me and I’m sure most rogue players will be pleased with it.

Shamans

A customizable totem bar will now be available for shaman allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems.

Base health increased by approximately 7% to correct for shamans having lower health than other classes.

The shaman is also receiving quite a few changes in this patch, so I would suggest you go take a look at the full notes if you happen to play one.

The new totem bar options are going to be a huge benefit to shamans everywhere. Being able to drop all four totems at once, on a single cooldown is huge. You have three customizable options for each spec, thus dual spec players can have up to 6, so you can get different groups of totems set up for different occasions.

The increase in base hit points for shamans is something that is definitely overdue. In articles read prior to full patch notes being released an interview revealed that nobody on the current team remembers why shamans had the lowest health pools in the game and that they would fix it in 3.2.

User Interface

Character name auto-completion for the chat frame, pop-ups, and mail interface can be enabled through an interface option in the Development settings.

Character names can now be colorized according to class in the chat frame through an interface option in the Development settings.

Casting bars under a target’s portrait will now indicate whether or not the cast can be interrupted.

Druids will now be able to see their mana bars when shape-shifted.

Item Comparisons: Holding the shift key while hovering over an item will now display the stat differences with the item currently equipped in the relevant slot.

Macros and scripts will no longer be able to target totems by name.

Quest creatures and objects will now show on the player’s world map.

The quest log is now double-paned for more easily viewing quest information.

Vendor prices will now be listed on items whether or not players are at a vendor.

I think the most profound impact form this patch is going to be right here in the user interface. Many of these changes are going to do away with the need for existing addons.

The first four items on the list probably hold the least impact, but there are existing mods that provide this same functionality.

Being able to see whether or not it is possible to interrupt a spell will save some players the hassle of wasting their interrupts, or perhaps it might prompt them to use them more frequently depending on the situation.

The Item Comparisons may very well take the place of the RatingsBuster addon as it performs nearly the exact functionality. The one benefit that RB still holds over this is that it does it for you automatically where the new option requires you to hold the Shift key in order to see the information.

Macros/Scripts not being able to target totems is going to make pvp against shamans a bit more of a struggle, which is actually a very good thing for those of us who like playing shamans. Macros that do this completely defeat one of the prime resources that shamans have to offer.

Quest Creatures/Objects showing up on maps, along with the changes to quests in the previous patch almost completely defeats the need for addons such as QuestHelper and Carbonite. Whether the new changes will work as well as these addons still remains to be seen, but there is potential now to see these addons sent to their graves.

Vendor prices listed on items will help you select your quest rewards if you wish only to sell the item instead of using or disenchanting it. I use an addon for this very purpose right now. I don’t remember the name of the one I use right off the top of my head, but it’s another addon being replaced by new in-game options.

Quests

The ravasaur trainer Mor’vek has returned to Un’Goro and will offer to help Horde players raise and train a Venomhide Ravasaur as a mount… if they can survive the creature’s deadly poison.

Since this is mentioned as a “return” I will assume that this is something that was available before I started playing the game as I do not remember ever hearing his name even mentioned. But the addition of another mount, and a horde-only one at that (For the Horde!) is good news in my book.

Professions
There is quite a list of profession changes. I only have a firm grasp on the workings of a few professions, and those happen to be the ones receiving the fewest number of updates.

I will leave the details of these changes for someone else to go over since I know that my own knowledge is lacking. From what I can tell, Jewelcrafting is going to receive the biggest change from this update.

Items

Non-Combat Pets: 8 new pets have been added (not including Argent Tournament rewards). Raptor Hatchlings can be found on rare and elite raptors throughout the game world. In addition, an Obsidian Raptor Hatchling can be purchased from Breanni in Dalaran.

For those pet lovers out there, and you all know who you are, there are now eight more for you to rush out and collect. While I do get a few pets on all of my characters, I’m not really into collecting things that have no real impact on the game itself, so I’m certainly not a pet collector myself.

Similar to professions, there are quite a few updates in the item category, so I suggest you take a look at the information at the actual patch notes if you are interested.

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12 responses to “Patch 3.2: Full Notes Revealed”

Fynralyl

June 18, 2009 at 4:00 PM

Had to check out that JC changes since you mentioned it…. YAY for increased stats from Dragon’s Eye cuts and UBER YAY for getting new epic gems from prospecting titanium… I am so glad I hang onto most of my titanium instead of selling or smelting!

I wasn’t sure if you were going to love them or hate them. I know from reading up on them the last few days that other sites have mentioned Dragon’s Eye is going to require a RED slot instead of a Meta, but I didn’t see it in the notes I’m looking at today. Not sure if they dropped that or if it was just left out. It’s a possibility though.

Confirmed. It wasn’t anywhere in the patch notes, but I’m on the PTR now and Dragon’s Eye’s are no longer prismatic (where you can use them in any color slot – metas are a whole other beast). It’s not just red slots tho. Your Dragon’s Eye matches the color of the stat you’re enhancing. For example: Runed Dragon’s Eye = red, Smooth Dragon’s Eye = yellow, Solid Dragon’s Eye = blue, etc. I’m not sure how I feel about this. While the stat’s themselves are higher and we’re going to have access to other Epic gems, we lose an enormous amount of flexibility it taking advantage of those benefits. There aren’t really any blue cuts that benefit a Holy Pally, or rather other stats are more important. I currently (pre 3.2) fill my blue slots with Dragon’s Eyes so that I can stack Spell Power and Crit, instead of wasting an all important gem on something weak like Spirit. Also, the gear on the PTR for a Holy Pally had far more blue slots (5) than either red or yellow (about 3 each). They really are trying to push us towards using our enhancements for mana regen, but this makes our healing spells much weaker. In my mix of Naxx 10/25 gear, my paladin on Blackwing Lair can out heal the sup’d up Ulduar geared, more strongly enchanted, beefed up Dragon’s Eyed character copy I got for the PTR. FAIL. This is where I drop my all time favorite class/spec because it now sucks. Not only did they nerf the need to stack crit (I am, and always have been, a crit healer) but they changed the JC profession so that I can no longer use it to make up for the loss. Sad day fo Fynralyl.

Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration or mana cost, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.

Hooray – no longer will I forget to re-apply this when it wears off!!

Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage.

Yeah, I did go ahead and leave some information out and I actually did it intentionally.

Righteous Fury no longer having a duration/cost/etc is nice and all, but I’ve never had a problem with it cancelling out on me to begin with. And if I remember correctly, patch 3.1 was supposed to make our Auras last beyond death and I haven’t seen that happen once. So as far as that portion of it goes I’ll believe it when I see it.

The Seals I won’t speak on because I don’t use them enough to have an opinion of them. I have tried using them from your comments on my previous post about tanking, and I haven’t noticed any real benefit from switching over to what you suggested.

But, I also don’t have any trouble generating more threat than everyone else around me. Probably something I’ll need to look into when I get to 80, but for right now there’s no reason for me to bother with it.

Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Currently, any damage taken by the paladin while at 35% health or below is reduced. Instead, any attack that would reduce the paladin to 35% health or below has its damage reduced. In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin’s health to 10/20/30% of maximum.

This one I actually did mean to comment on, which is why there’s a blank bullet in the paladin list, I just forgot to put it in there.

Ardent Defender needs a name change now to something more along the likes of “Epic Spell of I Can’t Die’edness”.

That talent just went from “Decent” to “HOLY CRAP!!!” on the awesome meter. I never found the talent really necessary when I had a reasonable healer with me, but that’s coming from my straight instance background, no heroics or raids in Northrend. Maybe it gets better as you get into tougher content. With the new change though, I can think of no reason NOT to take this, and several reason why you definitely should.

There are a lot of things I’m very excited about in this upcoming release. I don’t do PvP yet, but those changes are epic. Even I can tell that. I’m really excited for more mailboxes and welcome the UI changes with open arms. Anything that will help me not use so many addons will be a blessing and take a strain off of my computer. I’m also thrilled for the changes that you mentioned in your previous posts, especially the flying mounts at lower levels. You’re right. There are so many things to be excited about in the next patch!

I really think the good far outweigh the bad in this particular patch. I’m looking forward to a lot of them.

Some I’m not quite sure about as far as how significant an impact they might have on current play styles and such, but overall I like what I’m seeing.

Some of the classes that I don’t play at all, or don’t play frequently, might be getting nerfed without me noticing strictly because of my lack of experience with them and thus not noticing the full impact. I know Death Knights are upset, crit-healing paladins are upset, and a lot of feral druids are as well. But, since I’m not overly familiar with any of those I’m just going to leave the discussion of those to the people who can actually shed some light on the subject.